1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for entering sorting information, and more particularly to an apparatus for distributing unrecognizable sorting data to a plurality of devices for entering corrected sorting information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sorting information concerned in the present invention is information or image data for machine sorting or classification of mail securities and so forth.
Sorting data is sometimes omitted erroneously written, or unclearly written, particularly in mails. It is a common practice that such faulty sorting data is manually rewritten using a device for entering corrected sorting information. A conventional apparatus for entering sorting image data or sorting information will be briefly explained below.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are block diagrams illustrating such a conventional apparatus for entering sorting information for mail. The apparatus shown in FIG. 1A includes mail sorting device 11, a distributing device for mail sorting data 12 and a plurality of terminal devices 13.sub.1 to 13.sub.N (N=1, 2, 3, . . . ) for entering mail sorting data.
The mail sorting device 11 optoelectronically reads sorting data such as zip codes or address codes of supplied mail and sorts the sorting data.
Unrecognizable sorting data which cannot be recognized by the mail sorting device 11 are recognized by an operator, who then enters his recognized sorting data into the terminal devices 13.sub.1 . . . 13.sub.N.
The distributing device 12 is provided with general control unit 15 and output sections 17.sub.1 to 17.sub.N connected to terminal devices 13.sub.1 to 13.sub.N, respectively. General control unit 15 controls output sections 17.sub.1 to 17.sub.N. Each of output sections 17.sub.1 to 17.sub.N sends sorting data (image data) supplied from mail sorting device 11 to a corresponding one of terminal devices 13.sub.1 to 13.sub.N. Terminal devices 13.sub.1 to 13.sub.N receive unrecognized sorting data, enable the operater to replace data with the operator's recognized sorting data and send the rewritten sorting data to general control unit 15, which sends in turn the sorting data to mail sorting device 11.
As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the conventional apparatus for entering sorting information may include a plurality of mail sorting devices, for example 11 and 11'. In this case, distributing devices 12 and 12' are connected to the plurality of mail sorting devices 11 and 11', respectively, and a plurality of (N) terminal devices 13.sub.1 to 13.sub.N and another plurality of (N') terminal devices 13'.sub.1 to 13'.sub.N are connected to the plurality of distributing devices 12 and 12'. It is to be noted that the mail sorting devices 11, 11' have individual respective distributing devices 12 and terminal devices 13.sub.1 to 13.sub.N and distributing devices 12' and terminal devices 13'.sub.1 to 13'.sub.N connected thereto.
As a concrete example of the prior art, an invention of a sorting-information entering apparatus for mail is described in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 71877/86 (inventors Tamata et al.). The coding device which characterizes the invention of Tamata et al. includes a supply section (corresponding to mail sorting device 11 of FIG. 1A) and a plurality of desk (each corresponding to the mail sorting-data distributing device 12 and one mail terminal device for entering sorting data 13.sub.1 to 13.sub.N shown in FIG. 1A).
The apparatus of Tamata et al. optically converts density data in a sorting image of a letter or the like, recognizes sorting data, and sorts the mail. If the sorting data is unrecognizable, i.e., the sorting image is faulty, the sorting data is supplied to the supply section.
The coding desk supplied with unrecognizable image data from the supply section displays the faulty image data on an image display unit or the like so that an operator may recognize the sorting information. The operator enters his recognized image data, the correct sorting information, into the coding desk.
In the apparatus for entering sorting information described above, a plurality of coding desks is connected to a single supply section. When an optically unreadable zip code is supplied to the supply section, sorting information is manually entered using the plurality of the coding desks provided in the apparatus for entering sorting information.
The first problem encountered in the prior art apparatus shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B is that, when another mail sorting device such as the second mail sorting device 11 is added, the number of associated devices and the installation area of the entire apparatus are significantly increased.
This problem originates from the fact that a plurality of distributing devices 12 and a corresponding plurality of terminal devices 13.sub.1 to 13.sub.N are required for every mail sorting device 11. Accordingly, if mail-sorting devices 11 are added, then distributing devices 12 as well as terminal devices 13.sub.1 to 13.sub.N must be additionally provided in proportion to the number of mail-sorting devices 11.
A second problem encountered is that, where a plurality of mail-sorting devices 11, 11' are operating, unevenness in load is likely to take place among the pluralities of terminal devices 13.sub.1 to 13.sub.N and 13'.sub.1 to 13'.sub.N. For example, if the load on a certain one of mail-sorting devices 11 happens to increase, the loads on terminal devices 13.sub.1 to 13.sub.N connected to the mail-sorting device 11 increase. If the load on another of the mail-sorting devices 11' happens to decrease on the contrary, the loads on terminal devices 13'.sub.1 to 13'.sub.N connected thereto decrease.
Similar problems exists in the case of the Tamata et al. apparatus.
The reason for this occurrence of uneven loads is in that, since each set of terminal devices 13.sub.1 to 13.sub.N is connected exclusively to one mail sorting device, the load on each respective set of the terminal devices depends upon the load on the corresponding mail sorting device.